Daisaku Ikeda's "Living Buddha":

Ikeda , leader of the lay organization Soka Gakkai that stresses outreach, emphasizes how flexible Buddhism can be for our age.His "interpretative biography" cites Karl Jaspers on how in its origins, it emerged during what scholars call the Axial Age, when Socrates, Confucius, and later Jesus preached. Like them, the Buddha's messages weren't written down until later; like them, his teachings emerged from the "middle of the world" to spread to millions.Well worth reading.